The company that gave us the Sphero, Orbotix, has come up with a new app controlled bot called Ollie. Ollie is similar to Sphero in that you can still control this bot with your iOS or Android device.

Ollie can reach speeds up to 14mph and comes with two rubber tire covers that help maneuver through different types of terrain. These wheel covers come in different colors to help you customize your bot and you also have the option to purchase a limited addtion “goth-black” Ollie for a limited time. Ollie is programmable just like Sphero, so it can provide hours of entertainment.

A major difference is the shape. Ollie is cylindrical which gives it a different control capability and some are saying it is a bit tougher to control. Another difference is the way it is charged. Sphero is charged by induction charging and comes with a docking station, while Ollie is charged through a USB. It’s range is 100 ft so it might be hard to keep up with going top speed.

Sony is jumping on the popular hi-resolution audio band wagon. Thanks to Neil Young’s Pono project, Sony doesn’t need to spend much on advertising. Just google “hi-res audio” and Sony new toy is the first thing that pops up.

Young’s Kickstarter project was so successful, Sony probably thought “What the hell, lets give it a shot”. With that they will be releasing a new hi-res audio player at the end of this month, the Sony Walkman NWZ-A17. This device is smaller and lighter than Pono. The screen is bigger and will play all the popular formats; WAV, AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, MP3, AAC, and WMA. It also comes with 64GB of storage. And to top it off the battery life is off the charts, 50 hours of battery life or 30 hours when playing full 24-bit/192kHz files

Samsung announced on Wednesday the Galaxy Note Edge, the companies latest release of the Galaxy Note smartphones. The un-missable feature with the Note Edge – the screen is bent on one side to make use of the edge of the phone as part of the interactive display.

Although there is one single continuous piece of glass as the display, the side bar interactions happen independently of the rest of the display to help with navigation and display side-note information. Samsung has some unique apps that take advantage of the curved side with a matching game, camera controls and date/time information when the phone is in standby.

Along with the Gear VR headset, Samsung today announced the Gear S Smartwatch, Samsung’s sixth, (yes six) entry into the wrist-wearable technology space. What’s so special about this smartwatch is that it can run on its own – no need for a smartphone to go along with it and communicate. It has a built-in nano SIM card and came make its own phone calls and receive emails directly to the device. You can even type emails right on the Gear S with a tiny touchscreen keyboard. Whether or not you want to do that might still be in question.

The Gear S features a 2-inch curved AMOLED screen at 260×480 with interchangeable bands and a slot for the SIM card in the back. In addition to calls and emails, it will support turn by turn navigation, a news feed and a couple of running apps from Nike+ and S Health.

Today at Samsung’s IFA event the company announced its entrance into the Virtual Reality product space along side of Facebook, Playstation and Google with the Gear VR virtual reality headset. The headset is built so that the Galaxy Note 4 (also announced today) with its 5.7 inch screen will fit inside and act as the display.

According to Samsung, Oculus is actually behind the software handy work while Samsung takes care of the hardware. They are also expecting the Gear VR to be released to consumers yet this year, way ahead of the competition. We’ll provide more info as it becomes available.

Elgato has released a smart charger to go along with your smart phone with the Smart Power portable charger. This portable charger will connect to your iPhone via Bluetooth and an iOS app and provide information on the portable charger’s status whereabouts.

The actually charging still happens through a USB cord and the Smart Power holds enough juice to charge or iPhone 3 times. It can also charge other mobile devices with a USB connection. What sets this product apart is that it lets you know how much battery is left in it through the iOS app interface and will give you a reminder to plug it in and charge it up before you go places. Given access, the app can also be integrated with your calendar to identify busy days that you would be reminded to bring the portable charger along.

The Xperia Blog has leaked some photos, including the one above, of the rumored Sony ILCE-QX1 E-mount camera lens system. The QX1′s intention is to turn give your smartphone the ability to take DLSR quality digital photos.

The idea with this lens system from Sony is to basically create a very portable, professional type lens with all of the picture-taking features packed inside. They then give it the ability to mount onto your smart device and communicate with it wirelessly through Wi-Fi. The QX1 will pretty much work by itself to take pictures, but the phone acts as a viewfinder and a way to review the photos.

Some German engineers have revealed designs for 3D printing a “bump key” that they say can be used to break into common tumbler style locks. According to the engineers, using nothing but a photo of the lock and some software called Photobump, a working key can be created.

Bump keys are not anything really new, but the ability to produce a lock-specific bump key through 3D printing from a picture of a lock, well that’s pretty new. A bump key basically uses some force and some jarring of the lock to move the small pins in the tumbler into the correct position so that the lock will turn.

Yes, you are seeing this correctly. This is a chainsaw powered by a 4.2 liter V8 car engine. The chainsaw runs at a 1:1 ration directly from the engine’s rotations and tears through a 21 inch diameter hardwood peppermint gum tree in about 2.4 seconds.

The chainsaw was built as a promotional tool by Whitlands Engineering in Australia (hence the gum tree), so they really have no plans to manufacture them for consumers, but nevertheless it is impressive to see.

All parents face this problem every year. You want to show off your kids playing their sports but your phone just can’t get the good pictures that you can get with your DSLR camera. It is such a pain to go home upload the pictures to your computer and then get them on your phone. Well, the guys are Brando have a solution to wirelessly transfer the pictures from your DSLR to your iOS or Android device.

The Brando Wi-Fi microSD Adapter is a great way to get high quality photos from your DSLR camera to your phone in order to show off those kids of yours, or anything else for that matter. The adapter can be connected to up to 3 separate devices, so it’s not only you that gets the pictures uploaded to your phone, but also …

Just when you thought there wouldn’t be another one, Adidas proves you wrong. miCoach is Adidas’ version of a wearable activity tracker. Much like any of the others on the market today it tracks health data such as heart rate, steps walked, and calories burned. The miCoach also has LED lights that change color with the intensity of the workout and is made of a comfortable material that makes it easy to wear for long periods of time.

You can use Adidas miCoach app to set weekly goals and training plans. This new device, Adidas claims, aims to keep the user motivated and to keep up with fitness goals.

Since there are so many other models out there and this one is not cheap, $199, we wonder how this one will do when it is released next month.

This is a great energy saving tool to have if you have a plug-in air conditioner. The ThinkEco smartAC Kit will help you conserve energy all the while helping you keep cool on these hot Summer days.

The kit comes with a modlet and a remote control/thermostat. You can take the remote control with you to any room of the house, which is a convenient way to keep your location cool. If the AC reaches the room temp that you want the modlet will turn the AC off. If it gets 2 degrees above the set thermostat temperature, the AC will turn on.

Another great feature about this device is the ThinkEco software and smartphone app that are a part of the package. You can adjust the thermostat from anywhere. You can turn it on an hour …

Nothing worse than burning your toast first thing in the morning. One, it’s just annoying. Two, that smell can linger all day long.

Introducing a smarter toaster by Dualit. This toaster has patented Climate Sensing Toasting Cycle technology. What that means is it monitors the temperature of the toaster and what is being toasted so it can compensate for the correct toasting time. It also has a “peek and pop” function which allows you to look at the toast without having to reset the timer.

Other benefits to this toaster are a defrost setting and a bagels and buns settings that toasts one side while it only warms the other side. It comes with a removable crumb tray and a feature that allows you to lift the toasted items higher. So if you have something small in the toaster it is …